Mr. Godsill. Courtesy Bill Powers/Exhibition A.

Benjamin Godsill, a former curator at New York's New Museum, will become a specialist in the contemporary art department of the auction house Phillips de Pury & Co.

Mr. Godsill, 32, starts with Phillips next Tuesday. He will be based in New York, working under department head Michael McGinniss. His hire presumably fills the void created at Phillips when specialist Aileen Agopian left last year to work for Sotheby's.

At the New Museum, where he was a curator from 2006 to 2011, he organized exhibitions such as "Urban China" and "The Last Newspaper." Last spring, Mr. Godsill was one of three curators of an independent project, "Greater LA," which brought work by Los Angeles artists to a SoHo loft.

"I'm excited to join a brilliant and dynamic team that is envisioning what the 21st century can and will be," Mr. Godsill told Gallerist in a text message.